Rigging insulation installation



July 27, 1948. 'r. MOORE I RIGGING INSULATION INSTALLATION Filed Feb. 12, 1946 INVENTOR. THOMAS MOORE Patented July 27, 1948 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE RZGG-ING IEHSULATI'QN INSTALLATION Thomas lhloore, Washington, D. C.

Application February 12, 19%, Serial No. 647,183

3 Claims. (G1. l'74i208) (Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as

amended April 30, 1928; 370 O. G. 757) This invention relates to the standing rigging of a ship; and in particular, to an assembly of fittings required for the installation of an electrical insulator in such rigging.

It has been common practice to install insulators in the standing rigging of a ship. In general these insulators have been of the porcelain strain ball type in which both ends of the rigging rope at the place of installation of the insulator are formed into eyes or loops around or through the insulator. The loops are at right angles to each other and overlap so that the insulator body normally is under compression. But experience has shown that the strains in the rigging cause the rope to flatten where it is in contact with the insulator, frequently resulting in a. breaking of the flanges or side walls of the insulator, whereby the insulator may turn to such an extent that it is thrown into tension or other stress may be set up with resulting rupture and failure. Frequently, due to movement of the mast, the strains in the rigging will get out of alignment which, with looped wire rope, may result in a crushing or shearing of the insulator. Failure of the insulator is also sometimes caused by the rope eyes not fitting the rope receiving grooves of the insulator, thus permitting it to move and shift the strains out of alignment. Moreover, it is difficult to make the rope loops conform to the rope groove in the insulator. At best the rope contacts the insulator over a very limited area which results in a concentration of the stress which may easily pass beyond the compressive strength of the body.

With these defects in view, it is therefore an object of this invention to provide an insulating assembly for the standing rigging of a ship, which is adapted to keep the stresses present in such rigging in alignment, and

It is also an object of this invention to provide for and maintain the uniform distribution of the stresses in the body of the insulator under service conditions, and

It is a further object of this invention to provide for the installation of an insulator in ships standing rigging, wherein the ends of the rigging rope are not looped around or through the insulator, and

It is an additional object of this invention to provide insulating means for the standing rigging of a ship, which is of sturdy construction and of ample capacity to resist the stresses present in such rigging.

Other objects will be apparent from the following description, the claims and accompanying drawing which is merely illustrative of a preferred embodiment of the invention and in which the figure is a, longitudinal elevation showing the arrangement of the insulator and associated parts in a line of rigging.

In the drawing, l0 represents a rigging rope which may be of stranded wire of suflicient diam-- eter to carry the stresses to which it is subject. 52 is the compression sleeve of a. Wire rope socket It is provided with a threaded end which is adapted to engage the interior threads of open ended socket Hi. In this type of rope socket there is an independent cone I! which is driven into the end of the rope and which spreads the strands thereof. This expanded part of the rope extends beyond the interior end of sleeve [2 in such a manner that when this sleeve is screwed home" it grips the rope firmly and holds its securely in the socket. The other end of socket I4 is provided with jaws 56 which, with bolt 58, form a clevis. Bolts 58 and 32 are adapted to support Woven wire rope straps 2i) and 22 respectively. These straps manufactured in the form of a pair of interlinked loops in a manner that is not a part of this invention but they are of such size or diameter that will allow the insulator 23 to be slipped into one loop and then the other. Insulator 23 is provided with grooves 24 and 26. They are located in the exterior surface of the insulator and are bisected by the horizontal and vertical median planes of the insulator respectively. They are of such conformation that they center, hold and support wire rope straps 20 and 22 in position clear of the groove side walls.

The other end of the rigging rope 40 is provided with a socket and compression sleeve similar to that provided for rope end [0. Here socket 28 is provided with a pair of jaws 30 which with bolt 32 form a clevis, the same as with socket I l.

The invention described supra shows several advantages over present installations of rigging insulators. Among these are:

(a) A saving in weight due to the elimination of the heavy looped ends of the rigging rope around the insulator.

(b) By reason of the use of relatively wide woven wire rope straps to transmit the stresses to the insulator, these stresses are applied over a much larger area than with the rope looped around the insulator. The stresses are more uniformly applied; they are not concentrated over yasmall area. I .(c) The wide straps also are effective in holding the insulator in alignment with the stresses and failure of the insulator due to misalignment is eliminated.

(11) Ease of installation: It is much easier to provide the wire rope ends with sockets than to loop it around the insulator and to fasten with cleats.

While the above description has defined the invention as comprising a certain type of wire rope socket and a strain ball insulator of a. particular design, it is not desired to be strictly limited thereto as other types of rope sockets and strain balls of other design could be used without departing from the spirit or scope of this invention as defined by the herewith appended claims.

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalty thereon or therefor.

I claim:

1. An electrical insulator assembly adapted to beinstalled in stay and bracing ropes comprising a pair of open-ended sockets adapted to grip the ends of said ropes at the point of installation of the assembly, a strain ball insulator of high dielectric and compressive strength characteristics interposed between the sockets, relatively wide, interlinking grooves positioned in the peripheral portion of the insulator at right angles to each other and provided with bottoms curved inwardly with respect to the insulator, endless, interlinking, flexible woven wire straps adapted to fit within said rooves, to connect the insulator to the open-ended sockets, to center the insulator in alignment with the direction of stresses in the bracing rope and by reason of their Width, length of contact and flexibility to reduce the unit compressive stress on said insulator.

2. An electrical insulator assembly adapted to be installed in the standing rigging of a ship comprising open ended sockets which are adapted to grip the ends of a rigging rope at a point of installation of the insulator, an electrical insulator of high dielectric and compressive strength provided with two relatively wide interlinked grooves positioned at right angles to each other in the peripheral portion of the insulator body, said grooves being provided with curvedly concave bottoms, and a pair of relatively wide woven wire rope straps adapted to interlink about said insulator one in each of said grooves, said straps being secured at their ends opposite the insulator to said open ended sockets.

3. An electrical insulator assembly adapted to be installed in the standing rigging of a ship comprising open ended sockets which are adapted to grip the ends of a rigging rope at the point of installation of the insulator, an electrical insulator of high dielectric and compressive strength provided with two relatively wide diametrically opposed grooves positioned in the peripheral portion of the insulator body, the median planes of which intersect each other at right angles on a, line through the center of the insulator body, the bottom of said grooves being transversely curved and concave toward the exterior of the body, and a pair of relatively wide woven wire rope straps interlinked with each other and secured at one side of their loops one to each open ended sockets, said woven wire rope straps being adapted to fit one in each of said grooves of said insulator body positioned between said straps.

THOMAS MOORE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,217,508 Schaake Feb. 27, 1917 1,758,312 De Right May 13, 1930 1,816,413 Way July 28, 1931 2,003,225 Vrooman May 28, 1935 2,270,964 Peters Jan, 27, 1942 2,297,430 Peters Sept. 29, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 608,579 Germany Jan. 26, 1935 

